Epilogue
Emerging from the wreckage that until that afternoon had been a bustling Southside city street, Sean searched the rubble until he found Alissa. Brother and sister regarded each other for a long moment, then hands rose up. The
smack of a loud high five being exchanged echoed across the devastated street. Both siblings smiled.
?Guess this makes the millionth time you saved my butt.? Alissa said.
?And a million more to come, I bet.? Sean uttered.
Elsewhere, Ratchet and Ironhide came trundling up another street in search for their leader. The lifeless, sparkless Jazz lay cradled in Ironhide?s arms. Gently, he set his brave fellow robot down on the ruined pavement. Bending low, Optimus studied the metal corpse. Nothing was said, no words were spoken, no communication exchanged?not even electronically. It was not necessary. Each of them felt the appropriate words without having to speak them. The moment was shared.
Turning away, Optimus walked the few steps to where a deep crater had been gouged out of the main avenue. A shape lay in the bottom, crumpled, broken, and inert. Megatron.
?You left me no choice?Brother. For the Energon to be dealt with, one of us had to die. I was willing for it to be me.? He pivoted. ?Better it was you.?
A much smaller shape approached tentatively, leaned forward to peer into the crater, and then straightened to consider the standing robot. ?All I remember is a bright light and being picked up and dumped across the street. What happened to the Cube?? Frankie inquired hesitantly.
?It is destroyed,? Optimus told her.
Frankie looked up at the giant. ?I?m sorry. I was afraid something bad might happen if I put it in you. You guys needed it to go home and bring your world back to life.?
?Without the Cube, there is no going back. That purpose is ended now. That home is closed to us.? The enormous, gleaming metal head tilted downward to meet her gaze. ?Our home must be here now. Among your kind. Among humans?and friends of your imagination.? And with that, he bowed, the entire immense upper body inclining in Frankie?s direction until it was directly over her and parallel to the surface. To her considerable credit, Frankie held her ground as tons of metal hovered just over her head.
?I owe you my life,? Optimus Prime told her. ?Humans do not always think rationally, but you can think fast. I did not anticipate what you did.? Straightening, he looked toward the crater. ?Neither, thankfully for all, did Megatron. We are all of us in your debt.? Gathering around him, the surviving robots formed a towering circle of glistening metal. Emulating their leader, they also bowed toward Frankie Foster. Looking upward, she turned a slow circle to regard each of them in turn. The sight was impressive, inspiring, almost overwhelming to the emotional Frankie.
?Aww, you guys,? she muttered, wiping away a single tear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a lovely clear day in the capital. In a downtown office, the secretary of defense of the United States stood at one end of a long conference table and regarded the individuals seated before him. Their expressions were expectant, their attention absolute.
?In an effort to limit awareness of the extent of the situation and its true import, the president has ordered Sector Seven to be dissolved and the remains of the deceased aliens to be secretly disposed of. He and his administration will take the heat for what will officially be called ?a civilian-military experiment gone bad.? There will be a storm of questions from the media. Given that ?alien invasion? is among the least likely explanations to be believed, we think it should be possible to manage the consequent fallout. Public relations-wise, containment will not be perfect, but I am assured that it can be spun.?
Turning, he indicated a wall screen. It showed the bow of a huge freighter surrounded by escort vessels. As the remote camera looked on, the twisted, gnarled remains of lifeless Decepticons were pushed through an open railing and over the side of the ship, to disappear beneath white-topped waves.
?To prevent any chance of unforeseeable environmental fallout resulting from possible degradation of the, uh, bodies, they are being dumped into the Laurentian Abyss. At the disposal point it is seven miles to the sea bottom?the deepest point in any of the oceans.?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was a party at the backyard of the
Foster?s mansion, as several friends of the house, from Frankie Foster herself to Blooregard Q. Kazoo, celebrated their victory over the foiled alien invasion plot orchestrated by the Decepticons. In the center of it all was a beautifully restored and refinished Camaro, gleaming like new thanks to the combined efforts of the handiest mechanics in town and the expertise of the small but quick-witted Jackie Khones. Humming from Bumblebee?s stereo to make the festivities more thrilling was a song by Linkin Park tilted ?What I?ve Done.?
Nearby the mansion, an emergency vehicle (unoccupied by driver or passenger) sat parked on a hill crest along with a gleaming black GMC pickup truck. Both looked as out of place on the hillside as did the giant eighteen-wheeler that loomed over them.
Optimus Prime mused to himself, while gazing at the same sunset that was presently casting its magic over the
Foster?s mansion. ?For now, the Decepticon legions are vanquished, and fate has yielded its reward. A new world to call?home. We live among its people now, hiding in plain sight, but watching over them in secret. Waiting. Protecting. I have been witness to their capacity for courage and sacrifice. Though internally and in many other ways we are literally worlds apart, as with us there is more to them than meets the eye.?
The odd assortment of vehicles was alone on the hill. Optimus felt safe in raising his hood?his head?slightly off the ground and aiming it skyward. With that look, and an undetectable burst of energy, a final message flashed outward toward the sky and the stars beyond.
?I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to any survivors of my kind who may be taking refuge among other systems, other stars. You are not alone. You have a home here, among others of your kind.
?We are waiting.?
~~~~~~~~~~
Later that evening on television, spunky blonde-haired, red-dressed reporter Erin Peterson stood before a large group of characters on the same city street where the battle between humans/Autobots and Decepticons took place. Flashing her highly noticeable, bright toothy smile, she turned to the camera and began her report.
?Erin Peterson here to ask some of the local citizens one important question: are we truly alone in this universe?? She walked towards three preadolescent boys all sharing the common name of ?Ed.? ?These three young men claim to have witnessed a tall alien robot come out of an auto shop, disguised as a sports car.?
The rather intelligent if high-strung Edd addressed the reporter. ?Well, it didn?t exactly walk in as a sports car. It was a common intergalactic, bipedal machine that looked much like it came from another plan??
Eddy, the avaricious ?leader? of the trio, quickly interrupted Edd, pushing him out of frame from the camera and looking deep into its lense. ?What my friend Double D is sayin? here, folks, is that with the services of ?D, DD, and DDY?, you can be safely assured that these alien menaces will be wiped clean off our planet. That is, with an amiable price, say in the form of two dollars.?
?We want lots of jawbreakers. Yeah.? The slow-witted Ed stated.
Erin moved away from the three boys and over to a boy named Adam Lyon and his friend Jake Spidermonkey from Charles Darwin Middle School. ?These two middle school students claimed that a pickup truck was driving all by itself near the front of their school one evening.?
?It wasn?t aliens, Miss Peterson.? Jake stated. ?It was ghosts! Ghosts possessed the truck and made it drive all by itself! We?re not being invaded! We?re being soul-reaped!?
Adam made an odd expression. ?Soul-reaped??
?Yeah, it sounded really cool in my head, so I said it out loud.? Jake said, before speaking in a deep, manly voice that opposed his usually high-pitched, almost screeching tone. ?Sooooouuuuuuulllllll-reeeeeaaaaaaappppppeeedddd!!!?
?Oh, brother.? Adam uttered.
Erin then went to another trio of characters from a camp filled with animals just like them: the carefree Brazilian spider monkey Lazlo, the level-headed Indian elephant Raj, and the albino pygmy rhino Clam. ?These noble scouts were having lunch at a local diner, as a meteorite came down and destroyed their bus. Could this somehow be connected to the aliens??
?Oh, you bet!? Lazlo excitedly exclaimed. ?It?s just like that movie with that weird blob-looking thing. I forget what the name of the movie was, but the blob creature ate everyone after escaping from its meteorite pod.?
Raj appeared to be quivering as Lazlo gave the description. ?Oh, please, Lazlo! Don?t ever talk about that movie again! It was horrible how that blob ate that man who came near the meteorite! I had nightmares for weeks!?
Erin gestured her microphone towards Clam. ?You have anything to add, little guy??
Clam looked towards the camera, smiling and waving. ?Hi, mom.?
Finally, Erin went to two kids (a boy named Billy and a girl named Mandy) who were accompanied by the Grim Reaper?who Erin just dismissed as a parent wearing an early Halloween costume. ?These three have brought further information to the table by mentioning how the meteorites were indeed pods transporting the alien robots.?
?It?s a conspiracy. The government wants us to believe it?s an experiment gone wrong, but you can?t hide the truth forever.? Mandy stated. ?It was out there once, and now it is here. And you can make certain I?ll uncover it.?
?All I knows is that George W. Bush hates metal people.? Billy stated.
?BILLY!? Grim exclaimed. ?Don?t tell da people at home dat!?
?Well, it?s gotta be true, Grim. Why else would he destroy such
awesome alien robots??
?Gee. I dunno. Maybe because?THEY WERE TRYIN? TA KILL EVERYBODY!!!? Grim shouted.
?Don?t be hatin? just because you ain?t got a cool transforming power, Grim.? Billy said, which made Grim only fume even more.
After the comments made by Billy, Mandy, and Grim, Erin returned her gaze back to the camera. ?You have heard it here from the frontlines, ladies and gentlemen. Apparently, we aren?t alone. Will it be a matter of time before more of these monstrous machines come? Only time can tell. This is Erin Peterson?signing out.?
THE END